Heston Blumenthal: Good chemistry

Heston Blumenthal dislikes the scientist tag – and yet the science in
his work is inescapable, says Catalina Stogdon

When it comes to cooking meat, frying fish or even roasting a potato, there are no half measures for Heston Blumenthal. His method is more likely to involve liquid nitrogen, an MRI scan, or even cooking an entire pig in a hot tub.

Heston, a three-starred Michelin chef, has delighted foodies all over the world with his gastronomic alchemy, such as the egg and bacon ice-cream and the flaming sorbet. He uses equipment that wouldn’t look out of place in a chemistry lab, which is impressive given that he admits he didn’t even so much as pass his chemistry O-level.

He dislikes the scientist tag, considering himself a chef first and foremost, “cooking intuitively and using science as a tool”. However, you will find yourself lab-coat deep in science after a matter of minutes in his company.

“Don’t think of food as being only made up of one thing,” he says. “From an apple to a cup of water, they are all made up of ‘chemicals’. All the compounds contribute to the texture and flavour.” His influences range from Oxbridge academics to molecular biochemists – and notably the chef Ferran Adria, whose restaurant El Bulli was recently voted best in world.

He believes that the boundaries of cooking are constantly being pushed and that “the nation is becoming more adventurous than ever” in its tastes and culinary skills. So can we learn anything from this wizardry and – more importantly – cook it at home?

Heston’s love of gadgetry is infectious. “To cook perfectly at home, you need accurate scales, an oven thermometer and a digital probe to measure the heat of the meat, to make it consistent,” he says.

The more adventurous could try water baths and vacuum packs – the “sous vide” method – in which ingredients, such as meat or fish, are vacuum-sealed in heat-proof plastic and slowly cooked in water at a controlled temperature.

Digitally controlled water baths are available from £480 through Clifton Food Range, (www.cliftonfoodrange.co.uk ) which stocks an eight-litre version for home use.

Heston recommends buying the best ingredients you can, putting the meat in the bag with stock and herbs, sealing it, and placing it in a water bath. “It is a more controllable way of cooking,” he says. “With a digital bath you can set the temperature so you have accurate control – you just vac-pack your ingredient, set the timer, pop it in and take it out when ready. It is essentially poaching it. In the water it cooks more evenly.”

For Feast, a forthcoming series due on Channel 4 early next year, Heston interprets historical banquets and cooks an entire pig in a sous-vide.

“We couldn’t find a water bath big enough so we went to a hot-tub warehouse,” he says. “We took the limiters off so it went up to 62C and we cooked it at this temperature for a day and a half. Then we spit-roasted it, cranking the heat up so it got the browning. It was the best pig that I ever tasted.”

The system is becoming popular with world-class chefs, so will more people at home be cooking like this in the future? “They are losing their boil-in-the-bag reputation and you can cook most things in them. They should become more popular in kitchens,” he says. “You can even do a whole Christmas turkey with a big enough bath.”

HESTON’S BEST ROAST POTATO

"A good healthy roast potato is an oxymoron – it you want to eat a roast spud without fat, eat something else.” He is a champion of cooking them in oil, not goose fat, “as it doesn’t have a high enough smoking point and does not crisp up as much”.

“The oil does not go into the potato itself. I know this because a scientist at Cambridge did an MRI scan on potatoes for me. He monitored the water flow into a potato covered in oil. The oil remained on the surface.”

According to his book In Search of Perfection, it’s the fissures that form as the potato breaks up that trap the fat, creating a crunchy crust. He recommends a variety such as Maris Piper. Parboil them in water to the point where they start to break up, but before they fall apart. “Put them on a roasting tray and cover them with up to a centimetre of ground nut or olive oil – so they are all individually covered.” They should all be on one layer. Cook them at 180-190C for about an hour or until they are crisp and golden-brown. “They should be crunchy on the outside, fluffy in the centre,” he says.

HESTON’S FIVE-MINUTE SUPPER

What does a chef cook when he doesn’t feel like cooking? “A really tasty, chargrilled burger, Aberdeen Angus, with iceberg lettuce, pickles and gruyere or Kraft cheese – I don’t mind a bit of kitsch now and again,” he says. “I make a sauce with ketchup, mayo, Frenchies mustard and burger relish.”

THE ULTIMATE CHRISTMAS BIRD

Heston usually cooks either a goose or a Bresse capon – known as the “prince among poultry” and one of the most tender and expensive roosters in the world — which he buys from a supplier in France. Birds can cost up to £120. “I slow-cook it in the oven with oil and butter, lemon and thyme for 8-10 hours at 60C.

It is important that the temperature throughout has been at 60 degrees for 15 minutes. Then allow it to rest for an hour and put it back in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 220-230C to brown the outside. I serve it with pasta and white truffles.” Capons are available from specialist French butchers and at the Bourg en Bresse annual fair (www.glorieusesdebresse.com ), held every December.

Bresse chickens are available from Harrods (020 7893 8041).

COOKING WITH SHERRY

"One of life’s great pleasures,” says Heston, “is eating prawns in Spain, off the grill, warm and a little raw inside. Suck off the head and it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. That, with a glass of sherry is the best hangover cure I have had.”

One of his latest passions is delving into the chemical properties of this tipple, which he believes contains compounds, that, when combined with particular foods, accentuates the flavour to fever pitch – giving it a sensory “turbo boost”.

Working with professor of food chemistry, Don Mottram of Reading University, he has uncovered scientific reasons as to why we should cook with and pair the drink with particular foods.

“Flavour is made of aroma and taste [volatile and nonvolatile molecules, respectively] and food is made up of hundreds of thousands of aroma compounds. If you can look at things on a molecular level, it can throw up pairings you’d never have thought of before,” says Heston.

He believes foods such as meat, fish, shiitake mushrooms and cheese combine well with sherry because they are rich in “umame” – an intensely savoury flavour, known as the fifth tasting sense beyond sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

His research, with the Sherry Institute of Spain, has led him to believe a group of compounds in particular sherries (diketopiperazines to be precise) accentuates this savoury taste.

He has matched mackerel rillettes with Oloroso sherry to balance the smoky flavour, a trifle with a sweet sherry, and dry Fino sherry with the ultimate comfort food, cheese on toast, to enhance the flavour of the cheese - recipes conceived in the kitchen and given a boost by science, if you can follow the formula.